Tuesday, 11 March 2008

The Art of Procrastination

Procrastination.

1.

the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or defering an action to a later time

2.

slowness as a consequence of not getting around to it

I have this down to a fine art.

Every month we have a Board meeting at work. As Secretary to the Board, it is my job to take notes and write the minutes of the meeting. In order to complete this job, I get to spend the following day working at home so that the distractions of the office do not disturb me. Ha! What about the distractions at home!?

I get up full of good intentions. This month I will settle down and crack the minutes out without getting distracted. But first, I must just walk The Lurchers. That done, I sit at my desk and start work.

Ahh...hold on, The Lurchers just need their breakfast. Whilst they're eating, I'll just make a cup of tea. As I fill the kettle I notice the tap is starting to get a build up of limescale and make a mental note to do something about that when I finish work.

Sit down and start typing again. The limescale on the tap suddenly starts to bother me. Get up and spray on the limescale remover. Go and sit down again. Remember that it shouldn't be left on too long. Get up and rinse it off. Now the sink looks grubby so I might as well just do that whilst I'm there.

Sit down again. Mmmmm...feeling hungry now so get up and get some cereal. It's difficult to type and eat cereal so this seems a good time to take a ten minute break and browse a few websites.

Tell myself that I must work for half an hour before I do anything else. Must just pop to the loo first though. Whilst in the bathroom, notice that the washing basket is overflowing so gather up an armful and head for the washing machine. Ah, there's already a load in the machine so take five minutes to hang that on the dryer. Oh. Washing already on the dryer so take that down and put it away in the bedroom. Ah, bed's not been made yet. Quickly shake out the duvets and plump up the pillows.

And so on it goes through out the day. Normally, limescale, washing baskets and unmade beds don't demand my immediate attention. It's amazing how much importance they take on when there is something less interesting that I really must be doing.